Art, Symbol & Imagination
Hands Fend Off the Falling Fire
A long company of figures crouches and writhes across an open waste, raising their hands against small streaks descending through the dark sky. On the barren sand, fire falls continuously while the inhabitants lie, sit or move under different conditions. Doré places the restless bodies in a low band beneath a large, nearly empty sky, leaving the threat overhead visible through its repeated strokes. The caption focuses on the hands trying to shake off the heat. This plate records the collective environment described in the canto; it does not identify each individual or turn the poem’s classification of offences into an independent moral judgement by the Gallery.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "Hands Fend Off the Falling Fire" [editorial title]. In Dante's Inferno, Dante Alighieri. New Edition, undated supplied scan, undated edition, Thompson & Thomas. Source scan leaf 110. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/inferno-dore-103
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Full original plate and caption visually inspected. Editorial title; original scan tone and intrinsic damage retained. Sideways plates rotated in the Gallery derivative only.
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Dante's InfernoDante AlighieriUndated editionMore from this book
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Cite this illustration
Gustave Doré (design). Hands Fend Off the Falling Fire. Dante's Inferno. Scan leaf 110. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/inferno-dore-103